Theories of analyzing nineteenth century children's literature

When I learned that we would be covering childhood literature from the 19th century I was a little apprehensive. Although the time period in itself is fascinating, parents were trying to create a strict atmosphere for their children, so, I assumed that any outside influences, such as literature, would be made as dull as possible. After reading MacLeod's "Children's Literature for a New Nation" and Sanchez-Eppler's introduction to Dependent States: The Child's Part in Nineteenth-Century American Culture, I realized there were many theories supporting the reasons why children’s literature was the way it was.




The first theory is that the stories always consisted of what the adults deemed appropriate and proper. Unlike the fairy tales, magic, and suspense that came about later in children’s literature, the nineteenth century focused on expectations of obedience. As Sanchez-Eppler states, “They are objects of socialization: taught to conform to social expectations by child-rearing experts, by parents, by schools, and by didactic stories.” Morality was the most important attribute shared among members of a family. Another theory that can be used while analyzing children’s literature from this time is the idea that they included harsh examples in their stories as a way to scare children out of doing the wrong thing. For instance, Macleod gives an over-exaggerated example about repercussions when she says, “A girl who’s fondness of sweets took her into the pantry by night to lick the honey jar managed to burn down the house with a candle she left there.” There were many stories with unrealistic outcomes, such as this one, for the gullible, children audience. The nineteenth century was an ever-changing era with the onset of war and a revolution. Another theory is that in order to focus on the well-being of the future, which lied in the children, adults wanted to keep their literature influence flat and structured. As Macleod states, “Faced with disorder and instability, they valued predictability and order; living with ceaseless change, they idealized certainty.” Because of this, plots were not very exciting, setting was irrelevant, and repetition was common. As I have talked about before family played a vital role in a child’s life during this time. Children were encouraged to include their family in every aspect of their lives, even as they got older. Look at poor old Rip Van Winkle, he took his family and home for granted and as a result skipped out on twenty years of it while he was sleeping in the woods. There are many aspects to nineteenth century children’s literature and viable reasons as to why the people of this century created literature in this way.